


Senseless Love

by pyrodawndragon



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Actually all of the Vantases are deaf in this one, Deaf Character, Deaf Culture, Humanstuck, I'm Bad At Tagging, Its Explicit for possible smut in the future, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, deaf!Karkat, fluffy stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-12
Updated: 2015-04-12
Packaged: 2018-03-22 13:11:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3730189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pyrodawndragon/pseuds/pyrodawndragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Egbert is a student at some college somewhere. He attends lectures by his favorite professor, Mr. Silas Vantas, who happens to be deaf. One day he meets the youngest Vantas, who is also deaf. There are a few unexpected twists and definitely sparks between the two of them. Also lots of angst and obstacles for them to overcome. This is my Deaf!Kat AU where JohnKat is most definitely a thing and they are gay dorks together and you must love it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Senseless Love

Karkat was sitting at a traditional school desk in the corner of the lecture hall, busy on his laptop and easily ignoring the lecture going on. Every once and a while he would look up at the tan skinned man giving today’s lecture, not actually knowing anything that he was saying. The professor spoke with his hands as well as his words, being a born deaf. His cochlear implant allowed him to hear but he still signed from habit.

At some point the lecture had finished, but Karkat continues to work on his english essay, oblivious to the boy walking over to him.

“Hi! My name is John,” He said, sitting down next to Karkat, who was still typing away without acknowledging him. The boy, John, continued talking to him as if Karkat was just being shy. “What’s your name?” The man who had been giving the lecture walks over to the two boys and taps John’s shoulder.

“Mr. Egbert, that’s my son you’re speaking to. He’s deaf like me.”

“Oh! Well I’m sorry Mr. Vantas , I didn't know.” John looked up at his professor.

‘It is alright. In my opinion he could use a friend, so don’t feel bad distracting him from that screen.” Mr. Vantas smiled a bit and nodded to Karkat’s laptop. John grinned and dug a pad of paper and a pen from his bag and starts writing. Only now does Karkat look up and see his father and the strange boy beside him and he quickly signs to his father.

‘What the hell dad?! What are you trying to do here?’ Mr. Vantas just tosses him a smile and walks away to talk to some other students who were staring to file out of the lecture hall. John looks up from the paper and waves at Karkat, who in turn sighs and nods a hello to him. John slides him the paper which read, ‘Hi I’m John. I noticed you were new here so I thought I would say hello!’.

Karkat rolled his eyes and wrote back, ‘I’m not new. My dad just teaches this class. Why the hell would a deaf kid take a lecture course?’.

He nodded slowly in understanding. ‘Well that does make sense, he did say you were his son’.

‘Well we aren’t much alike.’ Karkat wrote back in reply, his handwriting scribbly and rushed.

‘What do you mean? You look just like him.’

‘I mean that he’s a people person and I’m not.’ Karkat tried to scare him off, not really enjoying the company of the overly friendly boy.

‘I figured that much since you were sitting alone in the corner’. He clearly didn’t get the intent of the statement and smiled at Karkat.

‘Well most people stay away from me since I’m deaf. Too hard to be my friend i guess.’

‘So you don’t have any friends?’ John looked at him, absolutely horrified. This nearly made Karkat crack a smile, but he controlled himself and remained grumpy.

‘Internet friends. Some go here actually.’

“Well that’s good! I can’t imagine being without my friends.’

‘I guess. A long time friend of mine says he lives around here but I never really asked if he attended here.’

‘Well what’s his name? maybe I know him?’ John offered, trying to help out his new friend.

‘His name is John, like you, but that name is painfully common. His tag is ectoBiologist though.’ John turned and looked at Karkat in amazement, which left the deaf boy confused.

‘Seriously, that’s his tag?’ John wrote hurriedly, as if he couldn’t believe what he was reading.

‘What’s so wrong with that?’

‘Nothing! Its just that my tag is ectoBiologist!’ Karkat looked at John with wide eyes, barely able to contain his amazement.

‘That’s incredible, mine is carcinoGeneticist.’

Once read this his eyes light up and he wrote back, ‘No way!’

‘Yeah that’s me.’ Karkat remains calm, despite the excited glitter in his warm reddish brown eyes.

‘It’s great to finally meet you’ John looks up at him after he writes, grinning like a complete dork.

‘definitely, I’m Karkat by the way’ He suppresses a smile of his own.

‘Wow that’s a cool name’ John said, looking at him with awe.

‘Here is how you sign it’ Karkat put down his pen and showed John his name sign, which was the letter k followed by the signs for car and cat. John also put down his pen and tried to sign his name, totally butchering the signs. He barked out a rough laugh which made John jump a bit in surprise, but Karkat didn't really know how loud he was. He signed his name again and John once again did his best to mimic his hand movements. Karkat reached out and shaped John’s hands, guiding him through the signs until he could do it.

‘There you go!’ Karkat signed, forgetting that John couldn’t understand. John looked at him, clearly confused and wrote down, ‘uh Karkat what was that?’.

‘Shit, sorry I forgot. I said there you go.’ Karkat sighed a bit and went back to writing.

‘oh okay’ John smiled at him, completely unfazed by the language barrier that frustrated Karkat beyond belief.

‘See, this is why people don’t talk to me’ His handwriting became messier as he became more frustrated.

‘Well I don’t mind. Its a habit you have and I wouldn’t expect you to change it.’

‘Yeah but just talking to me is tedious and no one likes it.’ Karkat lamented through writing, aggravated with this method of communication.

‘Well i don’t really mind it’. Once Karkat read this he stopped writing and turned to look at John, studying his features. He has tan skin, as if he was of native american descent, with clear blue eyes and messy black hair. After a while, John tips his head to the side a bit and Karkat suddenly realizes he was staring and looks away to hide his embarrassment. John writes down something and pushes the pad of paper over to Karkat again.

‘Are you okay? Am I making you uncomfortable or something?’ Karkat looks back over at him after reading it, a light blush showing over his cheeks.

‘No, I’m fine.’

‘Oh, okay’ John quickly glances at his cheeks, unsure how to react. Karkat responds with a nervous laugh, which thankfully didn't come up ridiculously loud, not expecting to meet the guy he had known since he was 13 and had been denying his slight crush ever since then. John smiles when he laughs and laughs a bit himself, writing something else down on the paper.

‘Its crazy that we met in your dad’s class.’

‘How so?’

‘Well I mean we didn't even plan to meet or anything. We just happened to meet by chance. The chances of ever living near each other have to be low to begin with, let alone that we meet on accident.’ Karkat reads what he wrote and nods slowly, responding after a bit.

‘Im sure we wouldn’t met up eventually. But I see where you are coming from.’

‘I was actually gonna ask to meet up soon, but now I don’t have to!’ John laughs and gives Karkat a friendly elbow to the ribs. Ignoring the fact that he was just touched, Karkat nods and smiles a bit. John grins back and that’s all it takes to make Karkat blush again. When John sees this, he cant help but blush a bit himself and avert his eyes.

Once they had finished being blushy dorks, Karkat wrote back to John, ‘So does your family live nearby?’

‘Yeah pretty close. I still live with my dad.’

‘Well since my dad teaches here and my older brother goes here too, we nearly live on the campus.’

‘Oh you have a brother?’ John asked, interested to learn more about Karkat.

He sighs and writes, ‘Sadly. His name is Kankri.’

‘Sadly?’

‘Well he talks way too much for a deaf guy’ Karkat snorted loudly, making John snicker a bit under his breath.

After receiving a sharp glare from said deaf boy, he wrote back, ‘oh. so he has an implant like your father?’

He nodded and wrote, ‘he is fucking obnoxious. And he has this habit of tagging triggers’

‘Tagging triggers?’ John cocked his head to one side, looking much like a confused puppy, which made Karkat smile internally.

‘You don’t wanna know.’ He groaned internally at the mere mention of triggers, visibly cringing.

‘No really, what is it?’ John asked, too busy looking adorably confused to realize Karkat didn't want to talk about them.

‘well before he talks he says/signs out all of the hashtags regarding possibly offensive content’ He shudders, clearly hating the stupid stuff his brother did.

‘It must be awful to talk to him’ John nods, finally sympathizing.

He nods, writing back, ‘Exactly my point’.

John changes the subject now that he understands how Karkat is with his brother. ‘So do you have one of those hearing implants like your dad and brother?’ At the mention of cochlear implants Karkat’s face grow cold and distant and he shakes his head. After a while John writes again, ‘Oh, I’m sorry I upset you’.

‘Bad memories is all’ He wrote, still rigid and emotionless.

‘So you used to have one? What happened?’

‘Shut up.’ Karkat dropped the pencil and looked away, clenching his fists to keep his emotions under control. John sighed, feeling guilty for upsetting him. He threw a sidelong glance at Karkat, whose face was a storm of emotion despite his attempts to remain calm. John scribbles ‘sorry’ on the paper and pushes it over to him. Karkat just shakes his head, picking up the paper and crumpling it up.

John’s heart wrenched and he mumbled, “I’m sorry,” even though he wouldn’t be able to hear it. Karkat waves his father back over, who obliges.

‘Make him leave’ He signed frantically to his father, whose face fell.

‘What for? I thought it was going well?’

‘Dad please.’ Karkat’s eyes were pleading silently.Mr. Vantas cleared his throat and turned to John.

“Mr. Egbert, Karkat and I have places to be, so I will see you back here next Thursday. Don’t forget to write your essay on the different kinds of social inequalities.”

It was easy to see that John was forcing a smile when he replied, “Okay, see you then.” Karkat gathered his things and left with his father, not even looking back at John.

 

 


End file.
